DOLPHIN RESEARCH CENTERThirty years of Teaching, Learning, Caring for marine mammals and the environment we share.DRC is a nonprofit marine mammal education and research facility located in the heart of the fabulous Florida Keys. Home to a family of Atlantic bottlenose dolphins and California sea lions, DRC offers a variety of educational, fun, exciting programs, and close-up interactions. We hope you enjoy our blog!

Thursday, February 12, 2015

It's very exciting to see Diamond, Karen, Kilo, and Lina out on the habitat together.

In October we welcomed a new member to the family, Diamond
the sea lion. She came here because we felt our young sea lion Lina needed a
friend closer to her own age. Diamond’s first home was up in the sea lion house,
where she got to know her trainers and meet her new roomies. The first sea lion
she met was Kilo, who welcomed another girl to his group with open flippers,
followed by Karen who enjoyed a few cuddles with her. Lastly, little Lina met
her new friend and was thrilled to have rambunctious girl in the mix.

Very social and curious, Diamond became fast friends with
all three new roommates. Then, it was time for her to take a big step and join
the others in the habitat. As word got around the facility that it was Diamond’s
big day, a large group of staff and volunteers lined the fence to watch her boldly
go where she had never gone before.

Each sea lion partnered with his or her own trainer for the
session. Kilo and Karen showed off their signature behaviors, while Lina worked
with her trainer inside the house. Trainers Loriel and Linda both worked with
Diamond to see if she wanted to go down the ramp and make her way out of the
house and into the habitat. A few times, she went halfway but then got a little
nervous and ran back up inside. The trainers then tried to have her exit from
the other side and down the stairs. Again, she came close but wasn’t able to go
the entire distance. Moving somewhere new can be scary. Always putting the
animals first, we wanted to make sure she made the move on her own terms.

After a small break, the trainers decided to take a
different route. The trainers asked Kilo to come into the house and then led
him and Diamond through the front door. That decision was gold! Diamond walked alongside
Kilo with no hesitation. It turns out; she just needed a friend to hold her
flipper.

As she splashed into the giant sea lion lagoon, all of the
staff, volunteers, and guests who had assembled to see what was going on, were
overjoyed by seeing Diamond play with her friends in the habitat. Kilo barked
his excitement. Karen swam around with Diamond by her side. Lina hopped up on
the dock and gave her new friend a nose-to-nose kiss. A visitor who was here
with her family stopped to see what was going on and was excited to be a part
of this joyous day. As a member of DRC, she had read about Diamond’s arrival
via our E-Newsletter. What luck they had to visit right at that moment. Of
course, we thanked them for being members and helping support DRC’s mission.

We are so excited to walk by the sea lion habitat and see
little Diamond out there with the rest of our flippered family members. She is
small and looks a lot like Lina. However, the easiest way to tell them apart is
by the color of their fur. Lina has a golden tint to her coloring while Diamond
is more silver and literally shines like a diamond. She is a great addition to
the DRC family and we can’t wait to share more stories about her adventures
with Karen, Kilo and Lina!

*This story is from several months ago, but we wanted to share it with our supporters who were not able to be here while Diamond made her way into the sea lion habitat.*